Summer Time

At happy hour today my lovely friends:

Jill and Maureen, reminded me about how I have been a HORRIBLE blogger this summer :)

I know they are right, and I could go on and on about how busy I have been working 8-6, getting up early to jog, and trying to get stuff done around the house, but that wouldn't be completely true (I also spend a lot of time watching the bachelorette, and walking around with Chris and sitting around outside) . . .

So instead of making excuses, I'll give you a quick update of my summer thus far, with the hopes that I will get better at blogging before and while I am in Spain!

First we got a new puppy:

Artemis the Weimaraner. Currently 15 pounds of cute, lovable, peeing all over my house puppy :) Soon to be 80 pounds of well trained cuddly puppy (we are sending him to puppy "boot camp" while we are in Spain plus he is going to obedience class with Chris, he should be good to go in . . . about . . . 2 years :))

Next my little brother graduated, I was so proud!

Next I started my job at the big downtown firm. It is fun and stressful all at the same time. Working a full day takes some adjusting too, and now that I am adjusted, my time ends next Friday! It is also bittersweet because they feed us, all of the time, literally I have not bought or brought my lunch once since I started working there! Good because i get amazing food for free, bad because amazing food is not good for my expanding stomach!

This weekend I am running my first ever 5K, i'll try to write about that random experience later! Next week is my last week at work, and then next Saturday (the 10th) I will be on a plane to Spain!!!!

Stubborn

Ever since I was very small I have always been stubborn. Yes I was quiet and sweet, but if things didn’t go my way I would cross my arms and pout until they did.

This characteristic followed me through life. If I set my mind to something it was, “my way or the highway.” My dad always said it nicely by telling me that I wasn’t very flexible. My sister and brother in law added some humor to it by giving me the “hail Hitler” sign whenever I got into one of my stubborn moods

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Little did I know how much my long time stubbornness would come into play in law school.

You see, I have this wonderful study group

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Jill, Maureen, and I study very well together. In fact, during finals we spend ALL day, EVERY day together. Which is wonderful because we learn a lot and have lots of fun (as long as we aren't crabby!)

But I’m afraid I did not warn these ladies about my stubborn characteristic. However, they found out about it very quickly.

You see, when we study we talk about the concepts that we need to know. We all say what we think is meant by this concept and more often than not at least one of us thinks differently then the others. So we ensue on a journey to get the other person to understand whichever we decide is the right way. It is a great learning experience for all of us. Until I am the one who is wrong.

When I am wrong we ensue on a long drawn out, “please Laura just take our word for it” discussion where I sit stubbornly (in my head I cross my arms and pout) and poor Jill and Mo have to explain it to me again, and again, and again until it makes sense in my head and I can concede to the fact that they are right.

So really this post is a toast to Mo and Jill, who have stuck through my stubbornness (and still let me study with them.) You guys are the best and I don’t know what I am going to do next year when we all don’t have the same classes . . . you will have to warn my future study mates J

Finally Done

With Monday came a sigh of relief. I pushed the send button on my last final (Torts) and I was done, finally done.

You would think that lots of celebrating commenced and I stayed out partying all night long. But to tell you the truth, I had already celebrated that weekend and I was tired and just wanted to go home and hang out with Chris.

I celebrated before I was finished?? Oh yes I did!

After Civ Pro on Thursday, we only had one final left, Torts. Torts is not only our easiest subject, but it is the easiest to study for because our Professor is only looking for analysis. It is completely open book/note/whatever you want to bring. Our study group had already finished our outlines and wrote a bunch of practice essays, so come Saturday we were ready to go and didn't really need more practice (though we had planned a session for Sunday to make ourselves feel better because everyone else was FREAKING OUT and studying like maniacs . . .)

So I decided to have my long awaited "burning" party that Saturday. The pictures will tell the rest:

Meet my contracts manuscript:

You see, our Professor was writing this book while she was teaching it to us. Despite the fact that it is a good, well thought out book, Contracts was still my most hated subject. So I decided to fulfill every student's dream and burn this one when I was done (being that it wasn't actually a book, but printed out pages, I did not feel bad about this)

So we invited over Margo, Phil and Jill:

And the burning commenced.

We were very excited:

And we watched it burn and burn

And then it was gone forever . . .

And then we played video games and had some good laughs for the rest of the night. It was a very good time.

Recap on the week of events

I feel like a lot got accomplished this week in my world of law school.

First . . . I handed in my LAST paper of 1L year. This was very exciting!

Second . . . I attended a tea party in honor of all of the past and present women in William Mitchell History, it was inspiring!

Third . . . I attended my first "networking event" that I actually enjoyed. At the scholarship celebration this week I was seated at a table with two of the current higher-ups at Leonard, Street. One of their wives happens to be a Federal Court Judge that I really connected with. She made me promise to schedule a day to come and shadow her at the court house, I will definitely be doing that! I also received my first fancy pen in a box!

Fourth . . . I survived registration (see previous post) and will now be taking some really interesting classes next year.

Fifth . . . I was informed that I was accepted for two on campus jobs for next semester. One is as a research assistant in the library, and the other is as a Lexis-Nexis Student Representative. Both together will only be about 10 hours a week, which should be perfect!

That's a pretty accomplished week! Now onto the final week of classes (yay) and then finals.

Registration

Well yesterday we registered for classes. Well, I should say, yesterday I registered for class.

You see, most of my classmates registered on Wednesday. The whole system is based on credits and then random. So all of us first years who have the same amount of credits get spread between 24 hours of registration. And I was in the LAST group of full time students to register (that I know of).

When I first found this out I was FREAKING OUT! How could I be last? Would I get any classes? It didn’t help that all of the second and third years were telling me that I was probably going to have to take all evening classes and get none that I wanted. In my FREAKING OUT, I talked to my favorite professor (who assured me that the times were random) and prepared a speech for Dean Janus. I mean, if I didn’t get the classes that I wanted (or at least somewhat wanted) or if I had to take classes in the evening, then why don’t I just transfer to the U of M?

Drastic, I know, but I was FREAKING OUT that much. Once my faithful friends talked some sense into me (something about free school and mass amounts of student loans) I decided to wait until after registration to give Dean Janus my speech.

So it came to registration time and it was rather uneventful. I got every class that I wanted and my FREAKING OUT ended up being pointless.

Here are the classes I got:

1. Constitutional Law (required for obvious reasons)

2. Professional Responsibility (required and a pre-requisite for doing any clinics)

3. Evidence (not with my choice professor, but at a better time)

4. Real Estate Transactions

5. Alternative Dispute Resolution

I also got a really great daytime schedule, with a couple of big afternoons off so that I can work.

I am very exciting to be taking some fun classes, and everyone else is excited that I am no longer FREAKING OUT J

Events, Events, and . . . more Events

The past couple of weeks have been a crazy blur. It seems that as the semester draws to a close not only are there more assignments, but there are also more events; events that you have to fit into your already packed study schedule. Now I can’t complain too much because there is usually an ample amount of food provided, but still, law students are busy and event planners should maximize their time by planning things at the beginning of the semester.

Take this week for example:

Tuesday: Last WRAP paper due!! Women’s Law Association Tea in the evening

Wednesday: Just property for school. Leonard, Street Scholars Celebration in the evening

Thursday: Contracts and Civ Pro and Registration for next semester’s classes and Law Review info session. BBQ with two of my favorite professors in the evening

Friday: Night off. Will probably be spent preparing for my oral argument next week.

Saturday: Day off, no homework, but . . . Fellows reception in the evening.

Seriously, so many events all stuffed into one week! On the plus side I won’t have to cook dinner for myself and being that Chris is out of town, this is a very good thing!

Exciting weekend of craziness . . .

Well this weekend was not the best I have ever had:

Step 1: lost my credit card (actually the puppies stole it off of the table and hid it, they are preparing me for having teenage children!).

Step 2: Kentucky Looses (as I told the nurse on Sunday, I cried blue!).

Step 3: Cut my finger with a sharp knife. And by cut I mean 1.5 hours of blood and six stitches cut. (my story is I tried to knife fight west virginia for their final four spot and it didn't go so well for me - actual story, I was cutting chicken)

However, all of the disasters were made okay by the exciting parts of my weekend:

Step 1: ladies night with my William Mitchell Girls, we had lots of dancing fun!

Step 2: taking the puppies to the dog park and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Step 3: Ate at the 112 Eatery with Phil and Jill, it was very tasty, as in, i've been craving it since Saturday tasty :)

Step 4: Chris buys an Xbox, and at my urging Lego Star Wars the complete saga. This is my favorite game of all time and I finally get to play without nanny kids making me share :)

. . .

So the good weighed out the bad. In school news we have come out of mid-terms, had a quiet week, and have now sailed into "oh my gosh finals are in a month" mode. Oh dear, the fun never ends :)

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sorry no pictures, eventually I will have time for them again!